It seems like everyone wants to go organic these days, and why wouldn’t they? After all, organic food is not only healthier, it also includes far less toxins and even has been shown to be more nutritious .
And did we mention that organic food from healthy, diverse soils simply tastes way better?
The biggest obstacle or objection to buying more high quality food most people have is universal: they believe that organic food costs too much ( an aversion to even small inconveniences also factors in, as well as lack of time in general, which is why we do need more organic restaurants and cafes, admittedly).
Now, thanks to the ongoing movement to buy more organic food and support more organic farmers, prices are dropping across the board, and it’s now possible to buy many organic items at roughly the same price as “conventional” foods in the supermarket.
But even with the price drops, there are still plenty of people who shy away from buying organic food because of the omnipresent price factor.
A little perspective on the issue might help: most people don’t realize that we spend far less on food in general in America than residents of other nations. A 2011 report by the USDA’s Economic Research service showed that the U.S. is dead last in percent of income spent on food prepared at home among selected modernized countries, as you can see in this chart.
The chart and report also show that in terms of overall expenditures per capita on food, the United States is second-to-last among 11 countries, ahead of only South Korea. Norway for example spends over twice as much as the U.S. on food.
In the United States we spend just 6.4% of our disposable income on food prepared at home, and less on food in general than every nation listed except for South Korea.
In South Korea, however, they spend a much larger percentage of their income, almost three times as much, on food to be prepared at home. As a result they live over three years longer on average than U.S. residents despite spending far less on health care, almost four times less in fact.
Obesity rates in the U.S. also seem to correlate with this lack of spending on food and lack of valuation of healthy or quality food in general.
Healthcare costs also are exorbitant in the United States, begging the question: if we spent more money on high quality food to be prepared at home, would we save on health care and enjoy a better quality of life?
That definitely seems to be the case in the United States, especially since as much as 70-80% of food on store shelves is genetically modified or loaded with ingredients banned in several other countries around the world.
That’s why I believe it’s so important to spend money on truly natural and organic food: we’re shortchanging ourselves when it comes to our health (and getting the best-tasting food possible), and we’re paying for it in many different ways.
This article first appeared on Nick’s website AltHealthWORKS.com. To read it in its entirety and see the chart’s eye-opening statistics on food expenditures and health, click on this link .
